Lot 352 | Dominique (Farbvariante Gelb-Orange)

GERTSCH, FRANZ
1930 Mörigen/Bern

Title: Dominique (Farbvariante Gelb-Orange).
Date: 1988.
Techinque: Colour woodcut on Kumohadamashi-Japan by Ivano Heizaburo.
Depiction Size: 234 x 182,5cm.
Sheet Size: 276 x 220cm.
Notation: Signed and inscribed (verso).
Number: 2nd condition 2/4.
Frame: Framed.


This woodcut appeared in an edition of 18 unique prints.

Provenance:
- Private collection, Switzerland (purchased directly from the artist)
- galerie im park , contemporary fine art, Burgdorf

Literature:
-Firmenich, Andrea: Franz Gertsch - Holzschnitte, Aus der Natur Gerissen, Cologne 2013, cat. rais. no. 8

Franz Gertsch is one of the most important contemporary Swiss artists. In the mid-1980s, at a point where he was already internationally known for his hyper realistic paintings, he gives up this practice for some time to instead focus intensively on
Xylography. With this printing technique he finds the medium that enables him to serially process a motif with monochrome colour variations. At the same time, he adds a new dimension to traditional woodcut art with the hitherto unknown precision in the execution.

For his mostly large-format prints, the artist uses photographs as "preliminary drawings". During the lengthy process of creation he then transfers these carefully into a very fine pattern of light points, which he then places close together in notches into the wooden plate with small gouges. In this way he achieves the grid structure reminiscent of pixels, characteristic of his woodcuts. Since printing the
large sheets is very complicated and elaborate, he only produces small editions of about 18 to 30 copies. Before each individual manual print he colours the cleaned plate so that each print has a unique character. In addition to his motifs from nature, Gertsch repeatedly turns to the subject of portraiture.
As is the case with Dominique, he mostly finds the models in his immediate surroundings. Whatever technique he uses, he always creates a picture with magical presence. With the present wood engraving the spectator first sees an oversized portrait of the young woman. The closer one approaches, the more abstract the picture becomes, down to the smallest points. It is the contrast between the enormous detail of the handwriting and the monumentality of the format, which creates a peculiar tension that one cannot escape. As the artists succinctly states: "My pictures come across slowly, the longer you look, the more you see" (Gertsch in an interview, in: NZZFolio, May 2008)..